Mass movie review

The road trip to Kansas and back was postponed for a week because of the knee deep snow that hit DC. Not to say we didn't try. But, apparently, DC and Maryland decided that they were gonna hold off on any respectable snow moving activity until the snow was over. And, in our defense, webcams of the highways looked a lot clearer than they were when we got to those points.

So I'm working from home on my laptop while my main computer plays Hulu movies at me. Some were worth watching while others were worth putting a price on the director's head.

Dawn of the Dead: Saw it in theaters and forgot. It was worse the second time around.

Master of the World: Based on the Jules Verne novel. It stars a young Charles Bronson in a role where he isn't packing guns of some manner. While the story isn't bad you'd be better off with an audio adaptation.

From Beyond: Are H.P. Lovecraft stories inherently unfilmable or are only bad filmmakers attracted to projects based on his work? It stars Jeffrey Combs who played three major aliens on various Star Trek series. He was a recurring Andorian on Enterprise, Weyoun and Brunt on Deep Space 9, and some minor role on Voyager. He's done some voice work for some DC comics based cartoons. And he's done lots and lots of low budget horror.
In this movie Combs was assisting a scientist who had created something that would stimulate the parietal gland and activate a 6th sense. It works, but then the creatures in the Beyond can see you, too. They ate the head of the scientist in charge and Combs was tossed in an insane asylum. Of course there's an insane asylum. It's H.P. Bloody Lovecraft!
The bulk of the movie is Combs, his new therapist, and her muscle going back and firing the machine back up so weirdness can happen.
I recommend for a bad movie night.

The second day I went for better stuff. Stuff that's been recommended forever but never seen.

Chaplin: In this movie Iron Man plays Charlie Chaplin who is being poked by the editor for his autobiography into filling in some gaps. It really is brilliant. Can't recommend it enough.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: I'm a Doonesbury fan. I got to talk to Trudeau a couple of years back. He signed a collection that's my age and we spent about 15 minutes talking since he had nowhere else to be. The character Duke is based on Hunter S Thompson. While I've always loved Duke's drug trips - particularly when his head opens, bats fly out, and he shoots at them - but watching the opening sequence of this movie makes those strips that much funnier. If nothing else you want to watch the first 15 minutes or so of this movie. They're hilarious.
My question is whether Depp did a great job of acting like Thompson OR do I just think Thompson talks that way because that's how Depp performed him?
The movie is about Thompson and his lawyer spending about a week tripping on various drugs in Las Vegas while covering a motorcycle race and then a police convention about drug use.

And, a bit off topic, the whole run of Stargate: SG1 is on Hulu until May 15.

MERRY WHATEVER!!!